Crappy Ending to A Great Skating Week :(

My sixth day in a row on the ice, 12 hours total. It’s like spring break all over again! A couple weeks ago I saw my general physician about the knee pain I was having due to the constant falling on ice and she basically told me to give it a rest. So, I stayed off the ice for 6 days and rested/iced my knee constantly. I got back on the ice with more ease and confidence ready to take on the world last Friday evening. I continued skating every day for a few hours until today. I got to the rink, skated beautifully during adult skate. I ran through my program several times, then broke it up into smaller pieces to work on elements. By the end of adult open skate, many people had gotten off the ice so I decided to just have some fun and ice dance to my current favorite song, "She", by Zayn. I was having a blast dancing along to it, I even found myself doing a new move, backwards power pulls (do those actually exist, because they are easier than forward power pulls). The zamboni came on to to the ice so it was time to get off. Luckily for me, there was another public session following adult open skate.

A few days ago I got really lucky and had the ice to myself during public skate. Today, there were four hockey players getting on to the ice and well, me. I knew that this session was going to end badly. While the zamboni was doing its thing I had a nice conversation with one of the other adult figure skaters at the rink. I’d seen her before and tried to be pleasant by greeting her but she seemed quiet. Today, she struck up a conversation with me! It was nice, we discussed our skating experiences. The conversation went as it always does.

Her: "What got you into skating...how long have you been doing it?"

Me: “Oh, around December I graduated from college and got really bored so I thought I’d come to the rink and skate. I was really bad at first, holding on to the wall but kept coming anyways. One of the other adult skaters convinced me to take an LTS class but I thought I was too old…”

Her: “Too old? I didn’t start skating until I was 40, I’ve been skating for 15 years. You are progressing so quickly and you have so much ahead of you.”

Me: “I really want to compete with other adult skaters, but I just don’t know if I’ll be able to”

Her: “If you want to seriously compete you need to skate between 4-5 hours a week.”

Me: “I usually skate between 8-9 hours a week, but I injured myself recently and I’ve had to limit my time”

Her: “Oh no, what happened?”

Me: “I hurt my knees from falling on them so many times”

Her: “You should wear knee pads”

Me: “I usually do, but I’ve been wearing a brace on my left knee”

Her: “You should still wear padding, double up”

Me: “I know that I need to…”

Her: “Well, I have to head out, I’ll see you later. Have a great day!”

Me: “Thanks, same to you!”

I literally had the same exact conversation with Anne (the other regular adult skater at the rink yesterday). Well, back to skating...I got on the ice with just my knee brace on the left leg knowing that it was going to end badly. Me and a few hockey players...they were sure to ruin the ice. I fell within the first 10 minutes on my right knee doing a crossover, arghh!!

After doing my program a couple times and working on my spins and mohawks I thought I should begin working on my backwards consecutive edges. As I was skating over I was looking down at the ice, it was already cut up by the hockey players, shocker. I thought I’d give them a try anyways. Before I made it to the end of the line I found myself on the ground again (thank you rut in the ice), on my left knee, in the same spot that I had been falling on for the last month. I held my breath, holding back the tears and I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Damn. I can’t get up. I tried harder and was able to just barely skate myself to the side where my stuff was. I had never felt this kind of pain before. It was miserable. For the first time in 3.5 months I was getting off the ice because I was injured. I limped my way off the ice, took my skates off and limped myself to the front desk for some ice. Then I drove my sorry butt home with the ice on my knee.

No more skating for one week. I just can’t. I need to let my knee heal and that means ice and rest. I can’t keep doing this to myself. I just can’t. **Insert tears of pain and sadness here**

Falling. One Too Many Times.

About a month ago I started to experience pain in both my knees.** It varied, one day the left one would hurt and the next day it would be the right one. I went to see a doctor about it, but the only person available that day was a PA. Nothing against PAs but I came out of the room with very little as far as understanding what was wrong or fixing what I thought to be a problem. She said some knees just make a “clicking/popping” sound naturally so I shouldn’t worry.

March came and went and the pain has persisted. Sure, I’ve continued working out and skating at the same crazy rate that I have been for the last few months. So, if rest could have helped...I sure haven’t let it. I met with my real doctor today and a problem definitely exists, why else would she have ordered an x-ray and MRI on the spot? This shall be fun. I’m supposed to keep from exercising my legs for at least one week, but preferably two. And while she didn’t say it outright, I am pretty sure that includes skating too. Do you hear that? That was the sound of my heart breaking.

I’m not sure how this is going to work. I am trying to come to terms with it, but it’s going to be difficult. I am already experiencing skating withdrawals and I skated yesterday. On the one hand, learn to skate is cancelled for two weeks for a hockey tournament so I won’t be missing any official classes. On the other hand I do have a private lesson scheduled for this Saturday and if I cancel it I won’t have a lesson for two weeks because my coach is going out of town. Decisions. Decisions.

There’s also this whole no exercising thing. What am I supposed to do, not go to the gym that I’m paying $70 a month for? Half a month of not exercising is $35 down the drain. Another way of looking at it is saving myself from having surgery in the future if I don’t take it down a notch or two.

On top of all of this I have my first competition is the first weekend in June. If I manage to stay off the ice for two weeks I will only have one month to choreograph and learn a program. ARGH!

** If this is your first time reading my blog I am having all this knee pain because I am constantly falling on my knees while skating. Every time I fall on my knees they usually take the impact from the fall. Like all my body weight is thrown onto that one spot on my knee. I fall on my knees while doing crossovers most of the time because I hit my toe pick on the regs. Last week I took a hard fall while stepping forward from doing backwards crossovers. If only I was being a little more careful I would have stepped properly but I was so caught up in the music I was listening to and not my foot work. #skaterprobs